“There are the actual facts of what was happening in popular culture in the 1980s — and then there was this tantalizing notion that music played backwards was going to seed our minds with evil. Which was scary, but also kind of cool to a certain kid-like way of thinking. You can almost see a book like Backward Masking Unmasked as young-adult literature.” — Rolf Potts

In this episode of Deviate Rolf delves into another musical mystery — the idea of “backward masking” in rock music, and how it came to influence notions of “Satanic Panic” in America over the course of the 1980s. Returning to the show for this musical deep-dive are Jedd Beaudoin (@JeddBeaudoin), who hosts the syndicated music show “Strange Currency,” and Michael Carmody (@Carmody68), a musician, record collector, and donut shop entrepreneur.

Together they discuss preacher Jacob Aranza’s underground-classic 1983 anti-rock book Backward Masking Unmasked and its idiosyncratic take on popular music (4:00); the history of rock and roll and American culture that led up to Satanic Panic in the 1980s (31:10); how rock acts exploited the idea of Satanism to sell records just as preachers, politicians, and pop-journalists fixated on its supposed dangers to attract followers (42:10); and the legacy of Satanic Panic and the seeming lack of evil in today’s popular music (1:05:45).

Rock and roll curiosities mentioned

Backmasking (audio technique)
Gene Simmons’ Tongue (Snopes article)
Blood in KISS Comic Book (Snopes article)
Paul is Dead (Beatles urban legend)
Aleister Crowley (English occultist)
Robert Johnson sold soul to the devil (blues myth)
Sign of the horns (rock hand gesture)
Eddie (zombie-like Iron Maiden mascot)
Dark Side of the Rainbow (movie/album mashup)
Acid rock (psychedelic rock subgenre)
Judas Priest suicide lawsuit
Ozzy Osbourne suicide lawsuit
Norwegian black metal (extreme metal genre)
Classic rock is not dead. Classic rock is undead (podcast episode)
Hammer of the Gods (controversial book about Led Zeppelin)

Movies and TV shows mentioned

CHIPs “Rock Devil Rock” episode (1982)
The Decline of Western Civilization (Penelope Spheeris documentary)
Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (docum...

Satanic backward masking changed 1980s rock (but not in the way you think)

Deviate

Satanic backward masking changed 1980s rock (but not in the way you think)